The recount of votes in the Boyle Local Electoral Area (LEA) at Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon, has not yielded any material changes despite a narrow margin of three votes between Fine Gael candidates, sitting councillor Liam Callaghan and newcomer Dympna Daly-Finn from Arigna. There are still three seats to fill in the six seat LEA.
Senior Fine Gael representatives, Senator Aisling Dolan (Ballinasloe) and Frank Feighan TD for Sligo-Leitrim, which includes part of North Roscommon, have both affirmed that each individual candidate has the right to request a recount, especially when the margin is so close.
I put it to Frank Feighan that Fine Gael were the masters of vote management in Roscommon, having pulled off a miraculous win in 2007 by electing two TDs and repeating the same performance in 2011, in response Deputy Feighan remarked: “When you elect two candidates, vote management was done well. When you don’t, it was done disastrously.”
In 2007, Roscommon-South Leitrim, as the constituency was then constituted, was only one of two Dáil constituency to take a seat from the then Fianna Fáil led coalition government
Historically, similar situations have occurred in the Boyle area. In 2009, in the former Boyle electoral district (4 seats and did not extend to Ballaghderreen and Strokestown as the current Boyle MD/LEA does), Fine Gael’s Charlie Hopkins was within ten votes of Gerry Garvey, also Fine Gael, on the final count before elimination and requested a recount. The recount confirmed an 11-vote difference in favour of Garvey, who was elected.
Today’s recount follows the request made by Dympna Daly-Finn at 3 am this morning, when Cllr Callaghan who had been trailing her for seven counts, overtook Ms Daly-Finn by just three votes.
At 8:15 pm this evening, Returning Officer Caitlin Conneely announced the result of the recount, with both Daly-Finn and Callaghan loosing two votes as a result of ballots not being marked.
Dympna Daly-Finn has now been eliminated on 990 votes. Her votes will now be redistributed.
